Marketing

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Week346.docx

Running head: WEEK 3, WEEK 4, AND WEEK 6 1

WEEK 3, WEEK 4, AND WEEK 6 5

Week 3, Week 4, and Week 6

Student’s Name

Institutional Affiliation

Executive Summary

The main issues addressed in this paper are the requirements that Coca Cola Company need to consider while promoting its products both locally and internationally. The promotional and communication strategy of the company that needs to be incorporated for the company combined with an effective product promotional strategy. The zero sugar cola has seen tremendous improvements but has not yet reached the desired and would require massive advertisements and promotion to cover the segments of the market that are not covered. This will require various promotional strategies right from its introduction, growth to maturity phases to enhance a feasible coverage of the market and generate significant margins to the company. Price is based on the value that the consumer derives from the consumption of the product. However, this value cannot be derived unless the consumer is informed about the product through promotions and distributing it to potential markets. However the company needs to put a price at a level that will ensure the company generates desired revenues and also consumers get back the value of their money. To enhance maximum consumer outreach, both direct and indirect distribution strategy channels need to be adopted to reach out the maximum number of consumers as well as cover new markets. The company has to adopt channel positioning of uniformity across the different markets all over the globe. This is enhanced by similar adverts that are adopted in different markets in different segments of the market. Coca Cola has been at many of the ethical issues, especially from its production procedures some of which have proven to be a bother to the environment and should find alternative mechanisms of purifying it. Besides, it is important for the company to indicate the true information on the product advert to avoid situations like those experienced in Belgium where the company products were lifted from shelves after child developed complications after consuming them. All the employees’ payment should be based on merit but not on their race as the company has been faced with serious racial discrimination lawsuits regarding underpayment based on an employees’ race, which have proven to be costly to the company in terms of damaging its reputation.

Week 3: Promotion and Product Life Cycle

The dynamics observed within the markets and the rise of the product dynamics is one of the key challenges companies like Coca Cola have to deal with if they are to remain competitive within the market. This is one of the reasons that the company introduced Coca Cola zero sugar brand to cater for the changing markets that have seen customers shift to avoiding sugary products due to health concerns. The product strategy that should be adopted is to promote the newly introduced brand in the market (Armstrong et al., 2018).

The main strategy that Coca Cola relied is promotion and communication channels to reach out to customers and win their loyalty in order to sell their new product. The company needs to take advantage of the retail spaces, social media and the digital media, as well as social media marketing to take advantage of the current market dynamics that have emerged due to technological changes. Another important aspect that should be incorporated into the product promotional strategy is the introduction of free samples, which creates room and prospects of meeting new and loyal customers to the company’s brand. Free sample also tend to meet reuse customers as well as retaining and fostering customer relationships. Besides, the company can invite various platforms such as the famous football leagues to be their brand ambassador and reach out to different prospective customers. The strategy might also consider using famous players although this has been one of the strategies that Coca Cola has employed in the promotion of most of its brands, which is also an appropriate strategy to introduce Coca Cola zero sugar brand into the market at the different stages of its lifecycle. This is also important because those who use the product might post it on their social media platforms when they see their favorite players using the product, which can be appropriate to reach to millions of customers across the world. This can also be accompanied with free sample campaign which can be a big win for the company as the product penetrates the market. This is very instrumental to the company’s promotional campaign because it will help create public relations with customers and get important insights that will help the company get opinions from potential market and help the company in the creation of the zero sugar brands. Besides, this will help in the development of the brand in order to suit the needs of the market.

Zero sugar brands has become one of the growing products and become among the top five most selling cola brand in the world. Coca Cola zero sugar has already passed the introductory cycle. The introductory cycle is basically concerned with the development of the market for the new product. The product has already reached the growth stage that is characterized by an increase in the size of the market for the product. The growth stage is also marked by an exponential increase in the size of the market served by the product. However, there is need to employ more promotional strategy to avoid reaching the maturity phase before the market is adequately served. In the maturity phase the product would have reached the peak and its growth curve would flatten. To increase sales in this stage will require modifications of the product (Guidolin, Guseo & Mortarino, 2019).

The use of the direct marketing strategy is one of the major achievements that have seen coca Cola Company win a significant portion of the market by selling directly to the market. In addition the Coca Cola has adopted a unique positioning strategy that is aimed at augmenting their long term slogan of thinking global while acting local. This has enabled the company to achieve significant portions of the market globally and becoming world market leader in the soft drinks market. The cola advertising strategy is very unique because it captures the emotions of the customer and every time they take Coca Cola makes they relate the experience to that one of joy as put forward in the company’s advertisement slogans. This advertisement strategy have seen the product move through the different lifecycle stages and achieve significant portion of the market, which has seen the company products grow.

Week 4: Price and Channel Strategy

Pricing and promotion strategy

Distribution refers to the act of closing the gap between the seller and the buyer. On the other hand, pricing is the determination of the amount of money that a seller will charge for a product. Price can be taken to mean the sum of value that consumers exchange for a given product for the value they will derive from using the product or service. Coca Cola Company has to set the price such that it will derive the maximum benefits to the company as well as the consumers in the market. The pricing strategy that is adopted by the company is dependent on factors such as prevailing demand in the market in the market because the two seem to be inversely proportional to each other (Nagle & Müller, 2017). Besides, the price set should be at the level where Coca Cola Company will generate the maximum revenue and give the consumer the maximum value for their money. Besides, it is also important to consider the competitor’s in the market to avoid overcharging and losing the customers because they will opt to purchase alternative products. Besides, pricing should take into account the target market to avoid instances where the market is either overcharge or undercharged. At times Coca Cola Company should consider psychological pricing by reducing the price slightly compared to competitors to make consumers think that they will save a lot of money by purchasing their brand. One of the pricing strategies that Coca Cola has employed is the promotional strategy because of the intense competition that the company faces from the close rival Pepsi in the beverage industry. Besides, Coca Cola also reduces prices per bottle during special occasions such as Ramadan in order to attract new markets that were not aware about the brand. Besides, the company aims at reaching even the newest consumers in the market even those who have never tested the Coca Cola brand. The company does so through offering prices no other company will ever offer to its customers making it hard for rival companies in the beverage industry to bit Coca Cola in the market and making it a market leader.

Distribution Strategy

The distribution strategy that is adopted by the Coca Cola is either direct or indirect depending on the prevailing market needs. Coca Cola Company is known to supply its products to shops using its own means of transport. In every country, there are several vehicles that are mandated with the distribution to different regions in each of its country of operation. This is a very strategic distribution and will be very important for the company to continue being a market leader. This is appropriate for the company generate more profit margins. In the case of indirect distribution strategy, the company has set up wholesalers and agencies in different regions where they have a branch (Zhou et al., 2017). This makes it easier for the product to reach areas that the company cannot reach directly to the consumers. The wholesalers are able to avail the product to the retailers and the final customers in areas that are inaccessible to the company.

Channel Positioning

Coca Cola has also adopted a channel positioning. Coca Cola has positioned itself tragically within the world soft drink market. The channel strategy that has proved to be the most effective for the company is to think global while operating at the local level. Though the company has kept the coke product, it is able to adapt to the local needs across the globe. The company has tried to create the same positioning strategy across the world such that it is perceived with the same image across all around the world ((Nagle & Müller, 2017). The strategic channel positioning is a success for the company since it is perceived as part of the people’s daily life. This has brought up a high degree of loyalty from consumers across the world, which makes consumer purchase decisions more automatic regarding Coca Cola products. The company uses a unique selling proposition which asks the customers to live the coke side of life which is more related to happiness and joy. Consumers are able to relate coke brand with the emotions caused by the preposition they usually think about joy and fun every time coke brand is mentioned.

Week 6: Social, Ethical and Legal Implications

Coca Cola in the marketing of its newly product that has been introduced into the market should consider all the requirements set forth by the Federal Trade Commission and other global standardizing bodies to ensure the information put across while advertising is truthful and does not any way mislead the consumers. Besides, the procedures that have been used in the manufacture of the product should not be harmful to the consumers by having evidence in place that will augment their claims in the advert. The adverts should avoid deceitful statements that will mislead the consumers by making them act reasonably under normal circumstances and affects their purchase decisions. A statement that that is influences the purchase decisions towards a product that cause unavoidable and substantial injury when using the product, unless the expected benefits outweigh the injury (Murphy, Laczniak, & Harris, 2016).

Coca Cola is one of the companies that has demonstrated strong market orientation, always made strategic decisions, and implementing actions that were aimed at attraction and retention of new customers. This has made the company brand the most recognized soft drink brand in the world. An evaluation of the global market indicates that the company brand is present in 200 countries worldwide which a remarkable milestone is for the company, and also demonstration of how successful the marketing strategy for the company is. The company demonstrates knowledge in marketing backed up by reputation for quality has been the assurance and the reason why the company’s product is universal. Amid all the success stories, the company is also faced with various restrictions that have influenced the company’s introduction of new products.

Being one of the largest beverage companies in the world means that it has even higher ethical issues pressures. One of the main issues regards the racial discrimination which can reduce the capability of the company in realization of its marketing strategy for its newly introduced zero sugar brand, especially in markets where racial discrimination is prevalent. Besides, there has been misrepresentation is market testing, which has a consequential impact on the overall success of the product. This has been largely affected by the fact that it is disrupting long-term contractual arrangement with distributors and slows down market coverage. However, the fact that the company has been faced with certain ethical as well as legal issues does not mean it has not positioned itself in being involved in other ethical conduct. Coca Cola has positioned itself in handling environmental issues by establishing a multiple step environmental protection strategy and prevent pollution through production processes as well as their products. This has been enhanced through the use of friendly facilities and equipment. Besides, they have tried to be water neutral to reduce water pollution concerns that are associated with its products. In the United States United these have been the main claims have been associated with water pollution but taking neutral water it will see replenishment of the used water by the year 2020. In other countries such as Belgium, some children got sick after they took a Coca Cola branded product, which resulted in the authorization by the health authorities to pull off all the Coca Cola products from the shelves across the country. As a result, the reputation of the company was damaged in such a market leading to substantial losses and means it will take time to rebuild its name in the market once again.

However, the issue of racial discrimination, especially in the US market has been prevalent such that it has cost the company much money in settling lawsuits. For instance, one of the ethical issues regarding consideration of race on pay scale saw the company pay $193 million in settlement of a racial discrimination lawsuit (Coca Cola). Such ethical issues are affecting the ability of the company operations to be sustainable within such markets as they face huge opposition from certain specific stakeholders. As a result, the company stocks have not registered any improvement for a period of ten years in row due to the issue affecting the company. However, the company should put measures to avoid such issues by valuation of their products before they are released into the market to refocus on reaching the world.

References

Armstrong, G. M., Kotler, P., Harker, M., & Brennan, R. (2018). Marketing: an introduction. Pearson UK.

Coca Cola. (n.d.). Coca Cola Globalization . Retrieved from Weekly.com: https://coca-colaglobalisation.weebly.com/ethical-issues.html

Guidolin, M., Guseo, R., & Mortarino, C. (2019). Regular and promotional sales in new product life cycles: Competition and forecasting. Computers & Industrial Engineering130, 250-257.

Murphy, P. E., Laczniak, G. R., & Harris, F. (2016). Ethics in marketing: International cases and perspectives. Taylor & Francis.

Nagle, T. T., & Müller, G. (2017). The strategy and tactics of pricing: A guide to growing more profitably. Routledge.

Zhou, Y. W., Cao, B., Tang, Q., & Zhou, W. (2017). Pricing and rebate strategies for an e-shop with a cashback website. European Journal of Operational Research262(1), 108-122.

Running head: WEEK 3, WEEK 4, AND WEEK 6

1

Week 3, Week 4, and Week 6

Student’s Name

Institutional Affiliation

Running head: WEEK 3, WEEK 4, AND WEEK 6 1

Week 3, Week 4, and Week 6

Student’s Name

Institutional Affiliation